South Texas Project looks to extend nuke license

Updated 7:57 pm, Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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This is the South Texas Project electric generating station near Bay City, Texas. The South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company is planning on building two more nuclear reactors on the site that will be known as STP three and four. Pre-site construction should begin in late 2010 or early 2011 and full construction should start in 2012 according to plant spokesperson Buddy Eller. JOHN DAVENPORT/jdavenport@express-news.net

This is the South Texas Project electric generating station near Bay City, Texas. The South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company is planning on building two more nuclear reactors on the site that will be

BAY CITY — The federal agency that regulates the nation's nuclear power plants held a key set of public hearings Tuesday to gather input for an environmental report — an important part of its examination of the South Texas Project's bid to extend its licenses.

The draft report found there would be little or no effect on the environment from allowing the nuclear plant to continue generating power.

Currently, STP's two licenses to operate the two reactors at the Matagorda County facility are set to expire in 2027 and 2028. Extending the licenses would add another 20 years to each.

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Regulators told them that NRC expects to issue the final report in July.

The commission also is required to ensure that the aging reactors, located about 90 miles southwest of Houston, would be able to continue operating safely.

“STP's license renewal will provide jobs for our children and build a strong economic base for our community,” said Carolyn Thames, a member of Bay City's city council, who was one of three civic leaders who spoke in favor of the project.

Bay City ISD board member Terry Farrar described STP as “the life-blood of our community.”

The local officials hit on a common theme: STP is the county's largest employer and an essential part of the area economy, and that the facility poses no real danger to the environment.

If STP weren't in Bay City, a town of about 17,000 people, “we would probably die,” Thames said. “They have 1,200 employees.”

However, an environmental activist who spoke at the afternoon meeting argued the NRC should allow STP's licenses to expire as currently scheduled. During the next 15 years, she added, the community could transition away from its dependence on the nuclear plant.

Susan Dancer, a local anti-nuclear activist who was sitting with Hadden, said she opposed the license extension for multiple reasons, including uncertainty about how the country will deal with nuclear waste.

“STP is kind of Matagorda County's sacred cow that you're not supposed to speak against or question,” Dancer said. “I think it's really important for a big corporation in a small town — it's important for citizens to question, to look into what's going on.”

City-owned CPS Energy holds a 40 percent stake in the nuclear plant and receives about 1,100 megawatts of electricity from it, which accounts for 32 percent of the utility's power generation.

CPS withdrew from a plan to build two more reactors at the plant in 2010, after it emerged that the cost of the project had ballooned from $13 billion to $18 billion.

STP's bid to extend its licenses could be delayed for another reason. The NRC has suspended issuing new licenses or extending current licenses while the agency's staff completes a study on the environmental effect of keeping nuclear waste at the plant sites. The report is expected to be finished in 2014.

A panel of federal judges in Washington, D.C., ordered the study in June.